Building the Revell 1950 Oldsmobile - We're Finished! 10/30/12

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The long awaited 1950 Oldsmobile is finally a reality. We waited a long time for a kit of one of the most popular cars of the fifties. Follow along as Bill Coulter and I tackle this thing and see just how well it goes together.

If you're interested in building a replica stock version of the new Revell 50 Olds coupe kit might we recommend stopping by autocolorlibrary.com and looking up the Ditzler paint chart for 49-50 Oldsmobiles.

We found that Testors European Green from their FS line of enamel bottle paints is pretty much spot-on for the factory primary engine paint color.

In the pursuit of brevity and cost savings, I found my light gray automotive primer a good match for the basic interior seats, door panels etc. color. Then I masked off specified areas as shown here for the two-tone treatment and in this case I used Testors Panzer Gray from a spray can.

Carefully peeling off the masking shows the two gray paint shades that form the interior treatment for this project.

Here we see most of the interior parts/piece for the Revell 50 Olds build. Some touch-up was required to give the interior door panels a bit more definition Testors European Gray was brush painted into the side spear as shown here. BareMetal chrome foil was used for the door hardware. The dashboard was painted Panzer Gray and chrome silver before adding the small and delicate gauge faces etc. Once the crest is applied to the steering wheel center hub, the kit provides a clear bell-shaped piece of clear plastic to mimic the 1/1 treatment. For the early NASCAR version, the backseat was deleted and this bulkhead panel was used and the four-point roll bar installed as shown here.

Micro Sol and Micro Set are strongly recommended for getting those tiny water-slide decals into their particular nook or cranny. Don’t laugh…that magnifying glass did come in handy…believe me!

I like to group the trees of small parts (and there are plenty in this Revell 50 Olds kit) for gang spraying. While some might prefer detaching each part for this task, our experience says it’s better to know just where every part is until you need it for assembly.

Gang spray-painting all the trees of parts getting a single color can really make that job so much easier. If you’re concerned about those pesky little spots where the runner was attached to each part/piece, a black Sharper as shown here makes quick work of that issue.

Modern kit technology sure makes painting the chassis a whole lot easier when like this Revell 50 Olds kit, the frame and floorboards are molded separately.

Once the frame has been painted matte black, notice there are some floor pan areas that need tending to. BMF was used to mask the front frame off a shown here. Use a paper towel or dinner napkin to protect the remainder of the frame while using Panzer Gray on the exposed areas.

Testors Metalizer Stainless Steel spray paint was used on the exhaust pipes. Once the initial application was thoroughly dry, a Post-It was used to mask off the muffler in preparation for a few coats of Aluminum Plate Metalizer.

continued.....

Edited 31 Oct 2012 by Len Carsner

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Here the transmission has been masked off from the engine etc. We found that fogging on various shades of Testors Metalizers helped to get a more varied metallic appearance on this early 50’s Olds three-speed standard transmission exterior finish.

Here the wheels have already been primed and painted body color for the Buck Baker NASCAR version. Testors No. 1204 red was chosen as a close match to factory original Chariot Red. If you’re determined to be totally accurate color-wise MCW will be happy to mix a bottle or can for your 50 Olds project. The grease caps were painted steel while the lug nuts got a touch of chrome silver applied by hand with a small brush. We’d also recommend using The Detailer black liquid to bring out some depth and definition to these stamped wheels. To insert the wheels into each tire, simply put the front and back half of each wheel together and carefully slide the combo into the tire opening. Don’t forget to insert the axle pin as described in the kit instructions.

In this shot, the rear wheels have been printed and detailed in preparation for assembly with the rear tires. Note the rear drum brakes, which have been fogged with Metalizers. Each brake drum goes over the rear axle pins as shown prior to assembly to the rear axle holes.

If it’s a well-engineered and intricately detailed vintage Olds 303 V-8 that you’ve longer for…you time has arrived. You can see the high parts count for this example from the new Revell 50 Olds kit. Time spent detail painting the myriad of parts and pieces will pay dividends when this one is finally assembled and detailed prior to installation.

Here the underside and rolling stock of this new Revell 50 Olds kit is coming to life. We’d recommend that you don’t permanently attach the frame to the floorboards until you’ve identified each part or assembly and where it’s located. This is an opportunity to jazz things up a bit by using a variety of metallic and matte finishes to bring out the detail and further definition on your project Olds. Paint was carefully scratched off of each spiral of the four leaf springs so they’ll show up better for these photos. Note the metal exhaust pipe chrome tip similar to those Revell has been including many of their newer kit releases.

After perusing the pervious photo, I noticed that some things need a touch-up here and there. One thing I plumb forgot was the gas tank straps. Rather than try to careful hand paint them, I decided to take two strips of Scotch tape and coat them with permanent marker black. Installed and trimmed to fit and the job was done.

A variety of metallic, matte and semi gloss paints were used to make the front suspension more visually appealing. Some parts were spray painted while others were done by hand with a brush and bottle paints.

Well, we're off to a good start but so far we've just shown you what Bill has been up to, so in a couple of days we'll post some of my progress on the stock street version.

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This is very interesting thread, I will keep a close eye for this one. The kit is absolutely on my "Wanted" list, needs to wait so I get some money, though. And I do need at least two of these, other one would be Stock and other one NASCAR, oh actually three, one needs to be Custom too, oh no, four, one has to be a Gasser.... Oh, whatever, it looks like great kit.

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I just grabbed two of these. Most of the kit looks really great. One thing I did not like was the windshield sprue was bent in the box causing some damage to the lower "glass". I also would like to see how the windshield fits in - it kind of looks like the top and sides install from the back but the bottom of the windshield kind of slides over the window trim or something...I'll follow along to see how this build goes and check my copy as well.

As a side note - the shop I purchased mine from went to restock/order the two kits I bought and his supplier is already out of stock - and he is a "preferred" shop.

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Well, I'd planned to update you sooner on our progress with these new Oldsmobiles but I'd forgotten about this weekends events in Toledo. Hopefully tonights extra-large post will make up for it.

Here I've highlighted a small raised mold line that will need to be addressed before priming. A quick swipe with a foam backed file here and along the fender edge and your done with the front of the car.

At the rear of the car we have this mold line that runs side to side on the trunk lid. Again, nothing more than a quick workout with the foam backed file to clean this up.

There was a question asked about the contour of the upper door frame at the windshield. This image hopefully answers that question.

A quick coat of primer, then some wet sanding to smooth things out. You'll notice I opened the two holes on the hood for the ornament. They're marked on the underside of the hood so there's no guessing where they are supposed to go.

Bill likes to keep his parts on the trees to paint where I like to separate them and put like-colored pieces on a paint stick wrapped with tape. This keeps them together and gives me a handy way to handle them.

Here I have my Olds engine primed, waiting for paint. Since Bill is further along than I am we'll check in on his build from here.